Blogging and bikes: 1st day out - The Adventure Begins

Thursday, July 3rd 2014 - Day 1

Esslingen am Neckar to Steinheim

49.3 km, 49.3 km so far

Track for today: Esslingen am Neckar to Steinheim

Sunshine all day, temp from 24 to 34 degrees

Time travelling - 10:44am - 6:17pm

Time moving: 3hrs 3min

(Notes about the Tracks for each day: The GPS (in conjunction with the "Ride With GPS" software) keeps track of distance, time,time moving, temperature, elevation and grade. When the GPS sits in the sunshine while we are stopped, the temperature will spike. On the other hand, I can see where we sat in the shade and it went down a little. So the overall temperatures on sunshiny days will be what we are feeling with the sun shining on us.)

Ready to leave Aunt Friedel's

Once we had made our way through a bit of street, up a ramp and over the bridge over the train tracks and down a ramp to the radweg. These are my first impressions:

Oooh, nice benches, I like benches

The Neckar is a major waterway

I saw this playground and thought of my grandsons

Vineyards line any steep sides of the river. Photos do not do justice to how steep these are.

Lush, green lovely vistas

The "Bench of the Day" took on new meaning as we looked for a place to have lunch. This was the view at the lake we stopped at.

More pictures of our Bench of the Day

With the vineyard across the river at more distance, you can maybe see more of how steep they are.

The river is, of course, very popular for recreation also

Ho! What's this? A ruin! I (Marvin) must go up to investigate

Hello down there

Working my way up through the walls

Sign says it was built in the 12th century and destroyed in 1633

An old painting shows how extensive it was prior to being destroyed by fire

Some remaining walls

We stopped at a Bier Garten to get some water and use the bathrooms. 5 Euros for the water ($7.50 Cdn)

It was a nice stop, though, sit in the shade and relax. Meanwhile, when I reviewed the GPS track, I see that the GPS temp went up to 47 Celsius, sitting in the sun

From a lovely bridge over the river

We start to enter some lovely farmland.

These calves really looked cute and pretty

Up close shot of the grape vines

Realizing we have long since passed through Stuttgart, we start seeing some pretty towns on both sides of the river

Roman mile markers from the 1st century

We were running well ahead of schedule for meeting up with Sven as he had messaged me that he would be in Marbach around 5 PM on his way home to his parents place in Steinheim where we would be staying. The radweg was on the side of the river opposite from Marbach and Steinheim so we needed to find our way without the radweg signs to guide us. So we crossed the river and kind of passed Marbach which was up on the hill, so I figured we could continue to Steinheim and wait there. But first we got somewhat lost going up a very steep hill that didn't lead in the direction I thought it might. So we came back down, found the river that Steinheim is on and found a lovely spot with a bench to stop and rest and eat some fruit and watch the swimmers in the river. I was able to use the phone as a hotspot and that meant that Erika could use her iPad to display a map of the area with us placed on it. We discovered that once she has displayed the map on her ipad (while online) it gets saved and can be used during the rest of the day without even being online. This means that we have a map that can be zoomed in and out and that always shows our present position on it. It's like having a marauder's map (at least for ourselves) from Harry Potter.
Using this map, we found our way to downtown Steinheim easily.

Rathaus (town hall) of Steinheim

More of the town square

Oh goody, an Eic cafe!

Sven arrives

A fellow named Horst Walker greets us enthusiastically, talking about his trips to Prince George, BC

Sven led us up to his parents' home where we received the most incredible and gracious of welcomes. Sven was quick to offer drinks, snacks and a shower. As an experienced tour cyclist he is very aware of the sweat and energy involved in a full day and kept offering us things he knew were important to him on his trips. Also, as Sven had recently moved from the family home, it was to his parents home we were welcomed. Greeted by Eberhart, Sven's father, everything was done to make us welcome.

Sven's girlfriend, Annika, surprised everyone by showing up and we had a wonderful time visiting with her as well. We didn't meet Sven's mother, Irmgard, until late in the evening as she was working late.